Want to make a cake personal and creative, but don't want to spend the extra money to get a professional to do it? There are many cake shops that will make a great creative cake for you, but why use them when you can build your own for a lot less money? I have been personalizing birthday cakes for years now, and I have never spent more than $15.00 on the personal touches that can make a cake really unique. With a little extra time and planning, you can have a creative themed cake in a few hours.
One of my first creative cakes is a beach scene made from very simply ingredients. This idea can be used for either a birthday, graduation, or simply a beach themed party.
As a creative tip, I made a sandcastle out of the brown sugar. Since the sugar sticks together so well, it is easy to mold pretty much any design you can think of. I used decorative sprinkles to simulate shells on the sandcastle
Once you have all of your sand and ocean finished, you can design your cake. As you can see in the picture, I have used Happy Birthday letters for a unique candle design. You can find different candles to use at craft or grocery stores.
For the beach-goers, I used gel icing to put bathing suits and a face on Teddy Grahams. Be careful with the gel icing, as it is liquid and runs easily. I recommend using the non-gel icing, which is like regular icing in a small tube. It takes a lot of patience to get the bathing suits just right, so make sure you have a bunch of them on hand. Feel free to use any other edible animal or person, or even small figurines. If you have small children, you probably have a lot of small figures that you can wash up and use for this cake.
I also used a lot of additional figurines, as I had them on hand already on hand from having small doll houses. You can visit a craft store and pick up small palm trees, umbrellas, beach balls, or even small people.
I hope you enjoy this post, and that you are inspired to make a creative cake such as this one. I will have more creative cakes to come in the future. If you have made a cake such as this one, or you use my tips and instructions to make one, please post pictures of it so others can get even more creative ideas.
One of my first creative cakes is a beach scene made from very simply ingredients. This idea can be used for either a birthday, graduation, or simply a beach themed party.
You will need the following:
- Cake mix for flavor of your choice
- A large plate or platter
- Two containers of vanilla or buttercream icing (must be cream or white color)
- A knife or spreader for the icing
- Blue food coloring
- Brown sugar
- Small palm trees (A.C. Moore)
- Teddy grahams (Small package)
- Icing tube/ icing gel tube, any color
- Decorative shaped sprinkles
- "Happy Birthday" candles (Available at most grocery stores)
- If available- small figurines of umbrellas, beach chairs, etc. (Available at most craft stores)
- To begin, decide if you will use one or two sheet cakes, and bake them according to package instructions. Of course, you may also use a recipe or homemade cake also, but this will require a lot more time. I chose to use two cake sheets, which I made in a 9.5" by 11" pan and placed them side by side on a large platter. Keep in mind that it will be harder to add more decoration to the cake if you simply use one sheet.
- After placing the two cakes side by side (as close as possible to avoid it looking like two cakes), ice both of the cakes completely in white or cream icing. Do not fret over crumbs in the icing or uneven appearance, as it will be covered up with decoration in the end. Simply ice both cakes for now, making sure to save at least half a container of icing for the step below.
- Use the blue food coloring to make the remaining white icing a blue color, as dark or light as you want your ocean color to appear. Begin to carefully ice the bottom half of the cake, using strokes like a paintbrush to simulate the waves. I spent a while trying to get the waves to look real enough, so it depends on your personal preference for how much time to dedicate to this. I iced about 1/2 of the cake, you can make the waves as prominent as you wish- a small wave at the bottom of the cake, or even an island with the waves around the edge of the cake.
- Open the container of brown sugar, and use your hands to crumble it over the remaining white of the cake. Again, you have a lot of creative freedom here- You can make the cake as sandy as you would like.
Once you have all of your sand and ocean finished, you can design your cake. As you can see in the picture, I have used Happy Birthday letters for a unique candle design. You can find different candles to use at craft or grocery stores.
For the beach-goers, I used gel icing to put bathing suits and a face on Teddy Grahams. Be careful with the gel icing, as it is liquid and runs easily. I recommend using the non-gel icing, which is like regular icing in a small tube. It takes a lot of patience to get the bathing suits just right, so make sure you have a bunch of them on hand. Feel free to use any other edible animal or person, or even small figurines. If you have small children, you probably have a lot of small figures that you can wash up and use for this cake.
I also used a lot of additional figurines, as I had them on hand already on hand from having small doll houses. You can visit a craft store and pick up small palm trees, umbrellas, beach balls, or even small people.
I hope you enjoy this post, and that you are inspired to make a creative cake such as this one. I will have more creative cakes to come in the future. If you have made a cake such as this one, or you use my tips and instructions to make one, please post pictures of it so others can get even more creative ideas.
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